MP accused of using Patel victims for own gain

The World Today - Thursday, 1 March , 2007 12:18:00

Reporter: Kathryn Roberts

ELIZABETH JACKSON: The Queensland politician who first raised allegations about the alleged incompetence of Dr Jayant Patel has been accused of using the victims of the rogue surgeon for his own political gain.

Nationals MP Rob Messenger has repeatedly criticised the compensation scheme for former patients of Jayant Patel calling it a rip off and suggesting some victims were bullied into accepting small sums.

But a Brisbane QC who's helped settle more than 100 claims so far says the scheme is fair.

The Bundaberg Patients Support Group is supporting the scheme and says Mr Messenger should move on.

Kathryn Roberts reports.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: A war of words has broken out between former allies Queensland MP Rob Messenger and the Bundaberg Patients Support Group's Beryl Crosby.

Today she had this message for the Nationals MP.

BERYL CROSBY: Stop using these poor patients for your own political gain.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: Mr Messenger responded with equal passion.

ROB MESSENGER: Well I've heard those sorts of allegations for near on three years now, and all I'd say to that is if it wasn't for politics, people would still be dying in Bundaberg.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: The relationship has soured over concerns about the way Rob Messenger has pursued the state government over the Jayant Patel scandal.

Beryl Crosby has accused Mr Messenger of exaggerating the severity of cases for his own political benefit and tabling private information about cases in parliament.

She says his repeated criticism of the mediation process for compensating victims is distressing already vulnerable people.

BERYL CROSBY: Mr Messanger has put a lot of fear into patients along the way, and they've been through the mediation and been happy and wondered what they've all been frightened of.

We've previously had to stop him coming from meetings because people got angry and walked out. There's been a lot controversy around it all now he's saying that I'm a mouthpiece for the government.

For God's sake, I've always been a mouthpiece for the patients. Does he think I didn't fight for them all? I'm just not being his mouthpiece

KATHRYN ROBERTS: Beryl Crosby rejects that patients have been intimidated or bullied and says that of the 160 people to go through mediation, the majority have been satisfied with the outcome.

But Rob Messenger is undeterred by her criticism. He says Beryl Crosby doesn't speak for all the victims and others aren't so happy.

ROB MESSENGER: One in eight applicants have been rejected. Why have they been rejected? Are they using Queensland health medical records to deem them ineligible?

Queensland health medical records, two royal commissions have shown that they're fraudulent. They're fraudulent for a couple of reasons; one of reasons is that Jayant Patel never filled out those records properly.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: He says widows too have been cheated.

ROBERT MESSENGER: They receive barely the cost of the funeral and some ancillary medical expensive, they don't receive pain and suffering, they don't receive punitive damages under this special compensation process, so widows are being ripped off.

KATHRYN ROBERTS: But the QC who's mediated more than 100 of the Patel cases has defended the process.

Ian Hangar says in most cases patients have received higher payouts than had they gone through the courts.

IAN HANGAR: Under this mediation process, the government is paying all their costs, all their medical reports, giving them more than they'd get from the court and undertaking to continue treatment for them if the treatment arises out of anything Patel did and that would be free